New Ulm weekly review., 1887-09-07


his best TO brace up, but his nerves
were dreadfully shattered, and after.
three or four minutes he began crying.
again. This had just the effect pre-
dicted. Half a hundred boys we're
sent off to cut switches, and when.
they returned they were told to go.
ahead and appl them to the engineer.
The idea was to whip some courage
into him, but#it was a fat failure.
Almost at the first blow the man
cried out like a woman, and, his feet
not. having yet been tied, ne danced
about like q puppet. g called out to
him to kick his tormentors, but he
paid 20 heed to my voice, and after
a time he stood stock still and let the
boys whip him until blood was drawn
in a score of places. All this time he
cried like a boy four or five years old,
and heard some Of the old warriors
say that he was the most cowardly
white man that they had ever met.
He may have lacked courage, but
always believed his conduct to have
been the result OF his shattered men
tai and physical condition.
After the boys had switched him for
ten minutes they were called of, and
couple OF warriors advanced with
their muz2le. loading rifles and began
to fire charges of powder into the
poor fellows flesh. Does it hurt?
Well, sir, nell can't be any worse. I've
had a dozen charges fired into ME, and
| never felt any pain to equal it. I'll
T. fe1 10 of1UN 110%c %o't
charge OF powder every time. The
first charge set him to dancing and
screaming. and at the third or
fourth he kicked one OF the warriors
over, and became so savage that they
had to fully bind him to the stake.
They fired thirty-four charges in all,
and by the time they had finished you
could not have told that Sewell was
q white man. His agony was some
thing awful, and he writhed about with
such strength that the stake had
twice to be driven deeper. His shrleks
| ank screams, as afterward knew,
were heard a distance OF more than
two miles, and yet this was only the
beginning OF what they had in store
| tor him.
The next move was to apply the
burning sticks. Some green sticks had
been put upon the fire on purpose, and
| three or four warriors applied the
burning ends to various portions of
the engineers body. The pain fairly
drove him crazy, and in a short time
he tainted. Water was brought from
the stream and dashed over him, and
during this interval many warriors
crowded around me to see how 1 was
bearing up.
"Dogs! Do you think you can
make The Long Death cry like that?"
shouted at them :'Here, pull up
my trousers and see where the cow
ardly Sioux shot powder into my legs.
Pull off my boots and find where the
Cheyennes applied the fire sticks.
Did l weep like a woman? Go ask
them. And when you ask that, in
quire who killed the Black Eagle, Red
Horse, Big Mountain, Great Buffalo
and Black Feather. They will tell
you, The Long Death.
But for the presence of four or FIVE
chiefs should have done for on the
spot, SO excited were the young men.
By this time Sewell had regained his
senses, and was sobbing and wailing
again, and they went back to their
sport. A warrior approached him
with a sharp knife and slashed him in
fifty different places, each cut being
deep enough to be painful, but none
OF them very serious. The gush Of
blood soon turned the man into a
horrible looking object, and several
times he would have tainted had they
not had water at hand to throw over
him. He had screamed so loud and
long that his voice was now entirely
gone, and the only sound he could
utter was a groan. He had long SEEM
ed unconscious Of my presence, and I
was glad of this. do not think he
was in his full senses after the burn
ing. After the warrior had cut and
slashed with his knife he fell back to
give place to another. This second
one meant to do finer work. Hemeant,
as a first move, to cut the victims
tongue out, but as he reached for it
with his left hand Sewell snapped at
him like dog. got the black hand
firmly between his jaws, and them
there was a grand uproar. Every
body enjoyed the fix the Indian was
in, and whenever he motioned as if
he meant to use his knife they shouted
to MIN to give the victim fair play.
Sewell held to HIM for fully five min
ntes, lacerating the hand like a
bulldog, and then three or four war
riors seized him and made him let CO..
The bitten warrior relinquished the
knife to another and during the next
quarter Of an hour Sewell suffered the
loss Of his nose, ears, fingers and lips.
He shrieked out in agony when his
nose was sliced off, but after that he
never even groaned, and consoled
myself with the nope that he was
dead. The Indians finally became
satisfied that they could get no more
stun" out Of him, and he was scalped
and the faggots at his feet were lighted
to consume tine body.
Nv time mad come There was q